Moisture-dispensing broom device



April 23, 1957 BELLER MOISTURE-DISPENSING BROOM DEVICE Filed Nov. 26. 1952 INVENTOR. Josm M, 861462 United States Patento MOISTURE-DISPENSING BROOM DEVICE Joseph M. Beller, Cleveland, Ohio, assignor to Elizabeth Beller Application November 26, 1952, Serial No. 322,775

2 Claims. (Cl. 15-132) This invention relates to handled cleaning instruments such as brooms for sweeping floors, and in particular the invention has significance in connection with provision of means for reducing the amount of dust and abrasive grit normally thrown into the air during sweeping operations.

In recent years medical cience has been able to analyze the contents of household, shop and other atmospheric dust and it has been determined that many of the severe allergies suffered by thousands of people are directly attributable to the inability of the human nasal system, skin of lung to adapt themselves to particular types of dust and grit without severe reactions, such as coughing, sneezing, asthma, and skin disorders.

Every user of the broom is acquainted with the annoyance and discomfiture of small clouds of dust and grit occasioned by the use of a conventional dry broom for sweeping dry, dusty surfaces such, for example, as garage and basement floors. The somewhat unique manner in which a broom is ordinarily used, that is by a two-handed, semi-pendulant type action, contributes particularly to the raising of these dust clouds.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a broom which will associate with the broom a liquid reservoir discharging through a valve actuated by sweeping motion to conduct a liquid onto the broom bristles and to the surface to be swept. Another object of the invention is to provide a simple reservoir and liquid distribution attachment which can be readily afiixed to a conventional broom without any modification of the basic broom and bristle relationship.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent from the following description of two forms which the invention may take, reference being made to the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. l is a side elevational view of a broom provided with the invention;

Fig. 2 is a front view of the broom of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view on the line 33 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 illustrates a modified form of the invention wherein the reservoir of Figs. l-3 incorporated in the broom handle is shown in enlarged sectional elevation with a ball valve at the bottom thereof shown in closed position;

Fig. 5 is a similar view of the bottom portion of the reservoir showing the valve in open position, the reservoir here being an integral part of the broom handle.

Referring now to Fig. l, I have shown in this form a conventional broom provided with a handle to which i secured, as by a cord or wire binding 11, a plurality of ordinary broom bristles 12. In accordance with the invention. a liquid reservoir 13 is provided and, as shown in the drawing, this reservoir comprises a hollow cylindrical member closed at its top by a removable cap 14, and having at its lower end or bottom a plug 15, as are brought out in Fig. 4. The lower portion of the plug 15 is the ice termination of a plurality of distributing conduits 16, the lower ends of which are embedded in bristles 12 of the broom for discharging liquid thereto, as is shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

As illustrated, the reservoir cylinder 13 is secured to the broom stick 10 by clamp members 17 in Figs. 1 and 2, although I do not mean to limit the present invention to the particular clamping means shown since it will be apparent that the cylindrical reservoir could itself be used as the broom handle, which form I have illustrated in Fig. 4, thereby eliminating the need for such fastening means. As will be seen in Figs. 4 and 5, the upper portion of the bottom plug 15 is provided with a vertical opening 18, having therein an orifice control element 20.

Ball seat enlargement 19, as shown, has downwardly tapered bottom sides 21 forming a ball seat to aid in the centering of the ball when the broom is in a vertical or substantially vertical position. The relationship of the inner diameter of the side walls of the enlargement 19 and the diameter of the ball used therein is such that there is an an appreciable clearance between the ball and the side walls, so that, when the broom is in motion, the force of inertia will cause the ball to rock back and forth so that it will move across the vertical opening 18 as the broom handle is moved about its vertical axis and tend to rest on the vertical opening when the broom is at rest. It will be apparent from the relative size of the ball 20 and the diameter of the chamber surrounding it that the ball will not be free to move completely off the seat as the broom is swung about and that only limited movement of the ball with respect to the seat and adjacent chamber wall will be permitted.

In operation the reservoir cap 14 is removed and the reservoir is filled or partially filled with a liquid, such as water or oil. When the broom is substantially upright but not in use, the ball will assume the position shown in Fig. 4 and the valving means will be closed to prevent the escape of the liquid. With the initiation of motion during the sweeping action of the broom, the ball will often take a position similar to that in Fig. 5 which will permit an automatically metered escapement of some of the liquid from the reservoir to the distributing conduits and through them to the bristles. From the bristles the liquid will flow by gravity and capillary attraction to the surface being swept.

Motion of the broom during sweeping action and the force of gravity will, of course, distribute the liquid thoroughly throughout the bristles and excess liquid will be gradually led to the floor surface. Dispersion of the liquid on the floor surface will tend to wet down the fioor and lay the dust since the dust will become mixed with the liquid so that it will not be thrown into the air as a result of the sweeping action of the broom. Other particles of dust will probably adhere to the moistened bristles of the broom and thus further reduce the amount of dust that would otherwise be raised by the sweeping.

In Fig. 4 there is shown an embodiment of the invention in which the liquid reservoir 14, identified in this form by the reference numeral 43, form the handle of the broom itself. The tubular handle can be made of plastic, metal or other suitable materials, and I have found that a transparent plastic cylinder is particularly effective since the amount of liquid in the handle or reservoir can be readily determined by a glance at any time. In this form I have used the same reference numerals for the lower portion of the reservoir and the distributing and valving means since they are identical with that shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 5. It will be apparent, of course, that the distributing conduits 16 would not, in this form, have to be bent inwardly as they are when the reservoir is used as an attachment for a conventional broom.

Since the invention maybe embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof, the present embodiments are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of theinvention being; indicated bythe appended claims rather than by the foregoing description; and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are intended to be embraced therein.

1 claim: I

1. In a broom, the combination of a handle, broom bristles aflixed thereto, a cylindrical liquid reservoir associated with said handle, conduit means extending from the bottom of said reservoir intosaid bristles, and valve means interposed between said reservoir and said conduit means and operable upon motion of said broom to allow the passage of liquid from said reservoir through said conduit means and intoand along said bristles, further characterized by said valve means comprising aball and a ball seat enlargement having vertical side wall portions of lesser diameter-than that of said reservoir and downwardly tapered annular portions forming a seat with said ball seat enlargement being located in the bottom of said reservoir and communicating with said conduit means, and said ball being located on said seat to close oil said communication for one position of said broom, with a sufliciently small clearance between the outer periphery of said ball and the side wall of said seat enlargement to permit limited relative motion between ball and seat during normal sweeping, whereby the ball may only move partly off said seat and whereby said ball and said seat co-operate to allow passage of liquid from said reservoir to said conduit means and said bristles only during sweeping. 7

2. For use with a broom having a handle and bristles,

a liquid reservoir adapted to be clamped to said handle and comprising a hollow cylinder, a removable fillercap for closing the top of said cylinder, a bottom plug located in the bottom of said cylinder and having a top portion and a bottom portion, a plurality of distributing conduits terminating in said bottom plug bottom portion and adopted to comunicate with said, bristles, said bottom plug top portion comprising a vertical passageway communicating with, said conduits and terminating at its upper end in a ball seat enlargement having tapered bottom sides forming a seat and having a cylindrical side wall of lesser diameter than that of said reservoir cylinder, and a ball in said ball seat enlargement having an outer periphery smaller than the inner diameter of said enlargement side wall, the clearance between the outer periphery of said ball and the cylindrical side wall being sufficiently small so as to permit motion of said ball within said enlargement Without being free to move completely oif' said ball seat during normal sweeping operation and thereby allow limited passage of said liquid to said bristles with motion of said handle.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 741,432 Allen Jan. 7, 1903 818,666 Caddell et al. M Apr. 24, 1906 921,225 Fuller May 11, 1909 1,250,842 Garvey Dec. 18, 1917 1,263,304 Wolf Apr. 16, 1918 1,783,773 Bilde Dec. 2, 1930 1,910,669 Biederman May 23, 1933 2,204,471 Campbell ,a June 11, 1940 

